Nestling recognition via direct cues by parental male bluegill sunfish (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Lepomis macrochirus</Emphasis>)

Parental care can be costly to a parent in terms of both time and energy invested in the young. In species with cuckoldry or brood parasitism not all of the young under a parent's care are necessarily offspring. In such cases, distinguishing between kin and non-kin, and investing only in the former (nepotism), can be advantageous. Bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) are characterized by paternal care and cuckoldry, and care-providing males appear to show nepotistic behaviours. Here, we investigated nestling recognition in bluegill, determining whether parental males can differentiate between young from their own nest (familiar and related) and young from non-neighbouring nests (unfamiliar and unrelated) using (1) visual and chemical cues, and (2) chemical cues only. In the first experiment, wild-caught parental males were presented with samples of eggs or fry (newly hatched eggs) collected from their own nest or a foreign nest and placed on opposite sides of an aquarium. The time these parental males spent associating with each sample, and their "pecking" behaviours (indicating cannibalism), were recorded. Parental males showed no preference between eggs from their own nest and eggs from a non-neighbouring nest, but they preferred to associate with fry from their own nest over foreign fry. There also was a positive relationship between male body size and the time spent associated with fry from their own nest. Parental males pecked at foreign fry more than 5 times as often as fry from their own nest, though this difference was not statistically significant. In the second experiment, fry that were collected from the nest of a wild-caught parental male or a non-neighbouring nest were placed in different containers and the water from each was dripped into opposite ends of an aquarium. The time the male spent on each side was recorded. In this case, parental males spent more time near the source of water conditioned by unrelated fry, but there was a positive relationship between male condition (fat reserves) and the time he spent near the source of water conditioned by fry from his own nest. Results confirm that chemicals cue nestling recognition by parental male bluegill. Electronic Publication     

卫生保健政策与医学伦理学

卫生保健政策是卫生资源、价值目标和伦理原则三者的结合。医学伦理学是卫生政策的重要基础。当代卫生事业的特点,卫生保健服务面临的挑战以及医学伦理主体与客体的变化,决定了医学伦理学在当代卫生保健政策中的特殊意义。在医学面临全民保健的阶段,一个科学的符合人民健康利益的卫生保健政策是不言而喻的。摆脱当前卫生政策面临的困难,要求必须在医学伦理学方面作出正确的选择。     

初中学生心理健康状况及其影响因素

本研究对441名初中学生进行问卷调查,结果发现：1．有7．5％的初中学生存在明显的心理健康问题。2．初中学生心理健康存在性别与年级的差异。女生比男生,初三、初二学生比初一学生有更多的心理健康问题。3．日常生活压力是影响初中学生心理健康的重要因素。4．解决问题、求助两种应付方式对学生的心理健康有积极作用,而自责、幻想、忍耐、合理化等应付方式则会危害心理健康。     

Professional and Provider Perspectives on Family Involvement in Therapeutic Foster Care

Therapeutic foster care (TFC) offers a promising community-based treatment option for children with serious emotional and behavioral disorders in the child welfare system. Family involvement is believed to contribute to achieving the goal of family reunification in TFC, but there has been little attention to family involvement in TFC. I present findings of a qualitative study of child welfare professionals' and TFC providers' perspectives on family involvement. Respondents' views of parent-child contact, parent-professional communication and information sharing, and family involvement in decision making were examined. Values and attitudes toward family involvement, practices related to family involvement, barriers to involvement, and strategies to promote involvement emerged as themes. Professionals in this study believed in the value of family involvement, but there were challenges at the organizational level and related to some TFC providers' lack of training to work with families.     

The Prophylactic Mastectomy Dilemma: A Support Group for Women at High Genetic Risk for Breast Cancer

The goal of this pilot study was to test the usefulness of a six session psychoeducational support group for women at high genetic risk for breast cancer who were considering prophylactic mastectomy. The themes of the group sessions included overestimation of and anxiety about risk; desire for hard data; the emotional impact of watching a mother die of breast cancer; concerns about spouse reactions; self- and body image; the decision-making process; and confusion over whom to trust in decision making. Both the participants and the multidisciplinary leaders concluded that as a supplement to individual counseling, a support group is a beneficial and cost-effective treatment modality. Recommendations for the optimal format for such a group are described.     

Functional Status, Receipt of Help, and Perceived Health

We model the effects of disability, functional limitation, and receipt of help on perceived health. This analysis specifies a model with two dimensions of disability and three dimensions of functional limitation, including upper body disability, lower body disability, basic activities of daily living (ADLs), household ADLs, and advanced ADLs. The latent variables of receiving help are modeled for each of the ADLs as intervening between limitations and perceived health. The results show that instrumental social support in the form of receiving help for ADLs has no substantive independent effect on perceived health. In addition, receiving instrumental social support shows a pattern of task-specific responses to individual measures of need. Implications for both caregiver and care recipient are discussed.     

Self and Reminiscence of Place: A Conceptual Study

This conceptual study looks at reminiscence of past places and selfhood for older people, especially people with dementia, living in long-term care facilities. Although the therapeutic potential of reminiscence, as well as the importance of places in one's life have been recognized, the potential benefits of place-based reminiscence remains untapped. This study critically reviews the existing literature in related substantive areas, synthesizes emergent major themes, and proposes a conceptual framework in approaching the relevant concepts. It is suggested that reminiscence of events and aspects associated with significant places from the past can offer a potentially therapeutic process in holding onto one's life experiences, and in turn present opportunities for preserving one's sense of self-identity.     

The Future of Psychology in Academic Health Care Centers

A promising opportunity exists to continue psychology's move beyond its traditional mental health emphasis into a general health care discipline. Abundant empirical evidence supports that psychologists treat a wide array of physical disorders as well as psychological components of medical problems. The immediate issues confronting psychology's full emergence into the health care world are discussed and recommendations are offered to assure the success of this initiative. Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost     

Relative Value Units: Using the New “Currency” for Measuring Clinical Productivity in a Productivity/Incentive Plan

This paper presents an overview of a productivity/incentive plan for faculty in an academic medicine center's department of behavioral medicine and psychiatry. The model utilizes the Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) for its measurement of clinical productivity. The paper provides an introduction to RBRVS terminology and how the RBRVS system was developed. The productivity/incentive plan developed for the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, is described. The advantages and limitations of utilizing Relative Value Units (RVUs) in a productivity model are discussed. The paper may provide helpful insights to those charged with developing productivity/incentive plans at other academic health science centers.